Alexander Gardener

Alexander
Gardener was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1821. At the
age of fourteen, he became an apprentice silversmith,
but by the 1850s photography was flourishing in Paisley
and this soon gained his attention. He was a socialist
and became the editor of the Glasgow Sentinel
newspaper which supported
Chartism, socialism, and attacks against capitalism.
He became interested in the ideas of Robert Owen and
was inspired by the concept of the New Harmony Community
established in Indiana. Allan Pinkerton was also a
Chartist before he came to America.

Gardener began promoting emigration to a colony called
Clydesdale, located in Iowa. He planned to join the
other colonists, but because an epidemic hit the
settlement he never did. (There are some reports that he
did go to Iowa and then to New York.) We do know that
Matthew Brady brought him to New York in 1856. In
Brady’s studios, Gardener was the first to produce
“Imperial” photographs. These tinted life-size
photographs were eagerly sought by the rich and famous.
Gardener thus took portraits of royalty, presidents,
military men, governors, millionaires, and famous
authors.

In
1858, Gardener moved to the Washington studio and began
experimenting with lighting by electricity. He soon made
a crude machine that produced artificial light. When the
Civil War began, Brady was appointed an official
photographer of the Union armies and was attached to
General George McClellan and the Army of the Potomac as
was Allan Pinkerton. Gardener, in a wagon fitted out as
a darkroom, left to record the war. A quiet man who
wanted to make his name as a photographer found that all
the pictures he took were credited to Brady. In 1863, he
and Brady parted and Gardener set up his own company.

After the war and back in Washington, Gardener ran a
portrait gallery and was perhaps the first man to
compile a ‘rogues gallery’ for the Washington police.
Allan Pinkerton was also using the same process about
the same time in Chicago. Pinkerton built a large and
impressive Rogues’ Gallery which was maintained in his
office on Washington Street, but everything was
destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871.

Five days before he was assassinated, President Abraham
Lincoln posed for a last series of studio portraits with
Gardener.

Captain Alexander Gardener died in 1882 and is buried in
Arlington Cemetery among America’s heroes.

Brookfield Zoo

Edith Rockefeller, daughter of John D. Rockefeller,
married Harold McCormick, son of Cyrus McCormick, in
1895. As a wedding gift her father gave her 300 acres of
land. The land was located on the western edge of
Riverside not far from the Scottish Home. In 1919, Edith
Rockefeller McCormick donated 83 acres of this land to
the Forest Preserve District of Cook County for the sole
purpose of developing a zoo. The Forest Preserve added
more acreage and, after years of failed economy and
delays, the
Brookfield Zoo opened in 1934.

Shortly
after the turn of the century, when Mr. & Mrs. Harold
McCormick decided to built their home in Lake Forest,
they consulted Frank Lloyd Wright. They turned from his
contemporary-style dwelling and instead chose Charles
Adams Platt to build their house. The house was built
between 1907 and 1912 and contained 44 rooms. It was set
in the midst of 250 lakefront acres of beautifully
planned grounds. The drawing room was a masterpiece of
that period with “elegant, cool, green marble walls
rising to a many-colored coffered ceiling highlighted
with gold.” The marble was the finest that could be
obtained in Italy. They called it Villa Turicum. The house cost $5,000,000 to build,
sold in 1947 for $46,000 and was demolished in 1956. Too
bad!

Falconer School

Chicago
has hundreds of schools and many are named for Scots.
Falconer school is named for a pioneer named Laughlin
Falconer who came from Scotland to Chicago in the early
1830s. He settled on the Northwest side of the city, and
came with only a little money and a musket to protect
himself from the Indians.

He bought 80 acres of land from the government, paying
$1.25 an acre. First, he built a log cabin and then in
1848 a frame clapboard farmhouse at 4824 Wellington
Avenue. His farm was bounded on what is now known as
Belmont Avenue on the North, Cicero Avenue on the East,
Diversey Boulevard on the South, and Laramie on the
west.

MacMurray College

MacMurray
College was founded in 1846 in Jackson, Illinois as a
private, career-directed, liberal arts school affiliated
with the United Methodist Church. They offer majors in
29 fields. “Scottish traditions and images have long
been a part of
MacMurray
College. From the MacMurray name to its Highlanders
athletic teams to traditions of having bagpipes at the
commencement and other college ceremonies.”

Because of their connection to Scottish culture,
MacMurray is proud to announce the launching of a
Scottish Heritage Program. The program director is
William F. Muirhead. He is a registered piping judge and
an open solo competitor. He served twelve years as the
Director of Scottish Heritage at Lyon College.

In 1864, Allan Pinkerton bought 254 acres of land on
the outskirts of Onarga, Illinois. The land was
purchased from the Illinois Central Railroad for
$4,067.52. Onarga is located some 80 miles south of
Chicago. In 1873, while recovering from a severe stroke,
Pinkerton began to build his villa, “The Larches.” In
writing of the estate for the Historic American
Buildings Survey, Loren Van Degraft said: “He created on
the prairies a replica of a gentleman’s estate he had
known when a boy in Scotland. The larch trees were
imported from Scotland and were set in orderly rows
along the drives of the estate. Along these drives were
planted thousands of flowers in beds that were always
neat and orderly. Guards were stationed at the gates,
and visitors who drove their horses along the drive
faster than a walk were fined five dollars for raising
dust that would settle on the flowers.”

Larch trees could not be purchased in the United States,
so Pinkerton had 85,000 saplings sent from Scotland.
They arrived in New York in February 1871 and, left
uncovered on the dock, they froze. Another 85,000 had to
be shipped and the agent responsible was fired. The
Larches was constructed like a fortress, with
guardhouses at each of its three entrances and contained
at least one sound-proofed room. On top the house was a
cupola “where riflemen with powerful field-glasses
continually scanned the surrounding estate for would be
assassins. A wide hall ran the full length of the house
lit all night by four huge crystal chandeliers. The
estate contained a racetrack, a fish-pond, and a large
open campground which was used for religious revivalist
meetings.... ”

The Snuggery, basically a wine cellar, was connected to
the house by an underground passage. Some have called it
an escape route since Pinkerton’s life was constantly
being threatened. From Scotland, he brought the artist
Paul Loose who was commissioned to paint a series of
murals depicting episodes from the Civil War. These
paintings included: ‘McClelland and his Staff’, ‘Bull
Run’, ‘The Battle of Gettysburg’, ‘Sherman’s March to
the Sea’, and best of all, ‘Secret Service Staff of the
Army of the Potomac’. “Over each door on the ground
floor were oil portraits of men he admired most from
that period: Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and, of course,
George McClellan.”

“It was a lively place on weekends, recalls old John
Nichols. Major Pinkerton would come down from Chicago on
Fridays with a group of friends and go back on Monday
morning. They would arrive on an Illinois Central train,
getting off at a special stop alongside the estate.
There were always three cooks on duty and the payroll, I
distinctly remember, ran to $1,200 a month. Yes, sir, it
was a great place while it lasted, but after Major
Pinkerton died in 1884, it gradually declined. And now
it is but a mere shadow of what it once was.”

There is controversy about most everything connected to
Allan Pinkerton. On the Internet you can find a
manuscript written by Russell Palmer when he was 94. It
contradicts much of the information about the Villa in
Onarga. The manuscript is from a collection of writings
concerning Allan Pinkerton and the Larch Farm compiled
by Patricia Off, who is now the publisher of the Lone
Tree Leader in Onarga. I do like his description of
Pinkerton when he says: “Allan Pinkerton was short and
stocky, with a full beard, no mustache, slightly tinged
with gray. In size and demeanor he closely resembled
Andrew Carnegie. During the latter years of his life, he
was lame, suffering from the ill effects of paralysis.
Few men were quite so active as he despite the limp. He
was very reserved. I never knew him to associate with or
even be friendly with any resident of Onarga. He was a
man of great dignity, personal charm, and had a keen
sense of humor. In his later years when he walked with a
slight limp and was forced to carry a cane, he still had
the bearing of the truly great man that he was.”

Old Illinois Houses by John DruryAllan Pinkerton, The First Private Eye by James
Mackay
The Carnegie Library in Onarga, IL
Patricia Goff,
LoneTreeLeader@msn.com

From the Editor

On July 4, we drove to Onarga, Illinois, to see the
home built by Allan Pinkerton. It’s an easy drive down
I-57 and the entire trip was a little more than 200
miles. Onarga, named for an Indian Princess, was
celebrating its 150th Anniversary, so there was a lot of
activity in town. Our first stop was at the Carnegie
Library built in 1907. The library was closed, but it
was interesting to see another of the libraries built in
Illinois. A resident walking by the library gave us
directions to The Larches. We found the house,
surrounded by the Bork Nursery of Onarga.

The house is in terrible shape. The Snuggery and the
barns are gone, and the verandas which once surrounded
the house on all four sides are also demolished. The
cupola is still recognizable, but given the condition of
the house one wonders how long it will remain. We were
most surprised that all the larch trees are gone.
Apparently, not a single one of the 85,000 trees has
survived. Many were just cut down. Most disappointing is
the fact that no one saved any of the pictures or
paintings. They were perhaps last seen rolled together
and stored in a barrel. What a shame that we take so
little interest in our past!

After visiting the house, we returned to the main street
and while waiting for a train to pass, decided to park
and look at some of the old pictures displayed in store
windows. It was at this point that we luckily met
Patricia Off, who is the publisher of the Lone Tree
Leader, a weekly publication carrying local news
and pictures. When Patricia Goff was 17 years old, she
wrote a paper for her American history class. She was a
student at Larkin High School in Elgin, Illinois and her
teacher was Mr. Barnes. Her subject was “Allan Pinkerton
and the Larch Farm.” She has spent her life gathering
information about Pinkerton, the Larch Farm and Tim
Webster. We enjoyed our conversation with her and
promised to stay in touch.

There are enough Pinkerton stories to occupy a lifetime
and we will write about some of them in the future,
including that of Timothy Webster. In the meantime, I
recommend Allan Pinkerton, The First Private Eye by
James Mackay, published in 1996.

This is my last issue as President of the Illinois Saint
Andrew Society. By September, Gus Noble will be in place
and functioning as our new President. The History
Newsletter will continue, but we do need to be
financially viable, so please send your donation if you
have not already done so. My e-mail will be
wrethford@comcast.net and you can reach me by phone
at (630) 629-4516. I have several assigned duties which
include the Museum, historical research and publication
of this newsletter.

It has been the experience of a lifetime to have served
the Scottish Home and the Illinois Saint Andrew Society
for the past 18 years.